HARRY Ranken was only eight when his family moved from Maryhill to Irvine because his minister father had been appointed to Irvine Old Parish Church.

He flourished, was dux of Irvine Royal Academy, and went on to study medicine at Glasgow University.

He worked at the Western Infirmary before joining the Army, where his research in Africa into treating sleeping sickness was widely published. When the First World War began, Harry, now Captain Ranken, volunteered for the British Expeditionary Force, and within days was treating the wounded on the battlefield where his own leg was shattered by a British shell.

Harry refused to be evacuated, and instead bound up his leg and carried on saving lives under fire for the rest of the day before being stretchered to a field hospital where his leg was amputated. A fellow officer wrote in his diary that he met Captain Ranken on a stretcher after his amputation. He was having a cigarette, chatting quite animatedly, and reassuring folk he was not in any pain.

The following day he died of a blood clot.

For his exceptional courage on the battlefield, Harry was awarded the Victoria Cross, the first to be awarded to a Glaswegian during the First World War. He was also the first graduate of Glasgow University to die in the conflict.

Nor has he been forgotten. Glasgow University's Chapel is used to happier occasions. Its dark wooden benches and angels soaring across the ceiling, and colourful coats of arms of former chancellors are more often seen by wedding guests as the chapel is available for graduates as a wedding venue. But look closer and you will see the names of the former students and staff who died during the world wars etched across its back walls. In fact the chapel itself was built after the First World War as a memorial to the war dead. There are 761 names on the walls from the war, the equivalent of a whole year's intake.

It was there last week that a memorial slab was presented to the university by Glasgow's Lord Provost Sadie Docherty on the 100th anniversary of Harry Ranken's death, as part of a scheme to lay slabs marking all of Glasgow's 11 Victoria Cross recipients from that war.

Only days before the ceremony, researchers from the Mitchell Library traced Harry Ranken's remaining relatives, including David Eynon, grandson of Harry's brother, who said that Harry's middle name of Sherwood was still passed down through the generations.

"Every year," said David, "I make a point of visiting the family grave in Irvine as near to Armistice Day as I can to remember my grand-uncle. He was quite a man."

There were serving military officers present as well last week, with their brightly polished shoes beating out a staccato rhythm as they marched across the flagstones. A lone kilted bugler played Reveille to remind guests of the more hopeful resurrection rather than just playing The Last Post. But this was no jingoistic occasion; nor was it during the First World War itself. The university's vice principal, Professor John Briggs, read the graduation speech given by the principal 100 years ago at a special graduation ceremony rushed forward so that 19 medical students could graduate early and join the war effort. The then principal wished them God speed but also reminded them that they had to treat the wounded on both sides and "alleviate the suffering of friend or foe". One-quarter of Glasgow graduates who served were medical personnel.

Then a procession, led by university staff in their brightly coloured gowns, followed by the military personnel, made its way from the chapel to a memorial garden dug out of the grass at the front of the university where a small simple wooden cross, with Captain Ranken's name written by hand across it, was carefully pushed into the earth. It looked quite insignificant, but over the next four years, on the 100th anniversary of their deaths, 760 further crosses will join Harry's little wooden memorial to form a blanket of crosses reminding passers-by in University Avenue of the sacrifices of so many.

It is not just the crosses that will remind people. Glasgow City Council has created web pages detailing the city's Victoria Cross winners including Seaforth Highlander Walter Ritchie from Maryhill who, despite his own wounds, wrested a bugle from a German soldier and stood on a parapet to sound the charge to stop a disorganised retreat by the soldiers around him.

Glasgow University has its own Great War Project which, online, is recounting the stories of its students and staff who served their country: an estimated 4,500.

As Dr Jennifer Novotny from the project told me: "It includes everyone who served, not just those who died. These individuals went on to live out their lives, perhaps giving us a glimpse of what was lost. Archibald Bowman, for example, came back from a teaching post at Princeton to join the British Army, spent eight months in a POW camp, returned to teach at Glasgow University, and was a tireless proponent of the League of Nations."

As the academic procession dispersed after the planting of the little cross, the fresh intake of students were still finding their way around to get to classes. It is good to know that they will in all probability finish their studies without the vice principal having to rush through their graduation ceremony and wishing them God speed before going off to war.